Former senior Chinese Communist Party official to be prosecuted for graft

BEIJING -- A former deputy head of China's top planning agency has been thrown out of the Communist Party and will be prosecuted for corruption, state media said on Thursday, after allegations against him were first posted online.

Liu Tienan was sacked in May. Luo Changping, deputy editor-in-chief of the investigative magazine Caijing, posted accusations on his microblog last December that Liu was involved in a number of illegal activities.

"Liu Tienan took advantage of his position to seek profits for others, and both Liu and his family accepted a huge amount of bribes," the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing a statement from the party's graft-fighting watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Liu was also "morally degenerate," Xinhua said in a brief report, without providing other details of the accusations.

He had been handed over to the judicial authorities, Xinhua added, who will formally charge him and take his case to court.

The National Development and Reform Commission which Liu used to work for, is a powerful body that sets broad economic policies and approves major investments.

Until March of this year, Liu was also head of the energy regulatory body, the National Energy Administration. He was replaced in that role following the rumors he was involved in a corruption scandal.

State media has previously reported that Liu had taken bribes for helping a businessman to defraud banks of loans of more than US$200 million in 2011 for an investment in Canada and that key information on Liu's case was initially divulged by a former mistress in Japan.

He is believed to be the first ministerial-level official to face an investigation stemming from accusations on the Internet, which the party has been trying to use to uncover graft, albeit with mixed results.